Dotun Adebayo’s Virtual Bookshelf

If you’re a literary insomniac, there can be no better way of spending one evening a week than by listening to Dotun Adebayo’s Sunday night (or, more accurately, the early hours of Monday morning) Book Phone-In on BBC Radio Five Live.

From 2.00-3.30 am, renaissance man Dotun, together with a literary partner, discuss the wonderful world of books, from the perspective of people who are passionate about reading and good writing. When I didn’t have a day job I’d often write through the night, so the show would make for an inspiring backdrop. Nowadays, I have to be up by 6.30 every morning so I’m not always able to follow it and that’s tricky because of the ambitious change in the show’s original format.

The current goal is to build a virtual bookshelf of a hundred titles, nominated and voted on by members of the public. The very first title was the Oxford English Dictionary, coincidentally chosen on the very morning in April 2009 that I began working for Oxford University Press. Over the next 100+ weeks the remaining titles will be chosen.

To give more information on the show, how to nominate and all the books currently on the shelf, I’ve created a separate page on this site. Clicking on Dotun’s smiling face will take you straight there.